In this photo the background was supposed to be the subject, but I was stuck with a pretty dismal day, gray and overcast, at the Great Wall of China at Bedaling. The first thing I needed to do was add some color. Fortunately, there was a vendor nearby, so I bought a blue umbrella and placed it in the corner of the frame so it would catch the viewer’s attention and then lead the eye right up the steps of the wall. So the subject became the background, and I composed the picture to direct the viewer’s eye just where I wanted it to go.
I held onto the umbrella, packed it in my tripod bag and took it along, and I got to use it again on that trip, this time in the photo of the young woman on a street in Beijing. Where she’s standing is the key to the picture. She’s off-center for a more dynamic composition, and your eye goes right to her—and then is led to the color and pattern of the background.

A background that could have been distracting becomes complementary in the photo of these two women at the table in Singapore. I couldn’t get rid of the riot of color behind them, so I used it by making them large in the frame to instantly draw the eye, and then blurring the background so it becomes all about color and not any individual item or form. The same thing goes for the photo of the woman in the market, also taken in Singapore. She’s the main attraction, and the background adds to the mood and feel of the place.